#loyalnerdlinger

Another slow day sorting through reports and constructing Trainings to fix any glaring problems. If he managed to finishing his work before sundown, he might call in early and go bag some monsters for the hell of it. No amount of time getting used to a desk job stopped Zig from getting the urge to stretch his legs and not let his Last Ranker title be just a fancy title. 

In his laser-focus, Zig didn’t hear someone knocking on his door; his visitors usually walked on in anyway so he usually only responded if he heard someone else in his room. Whoever was at the door eventually got the hint and invited themselves in. One look at them and Zig was already up on his feet. 

“You’ve got some nerve to waltz on in here.” Zig’s tone as he approached showed no fondness-- only pure anger. “Maybe you think disappearing for years without a word’s no big deal, but it sure was for me. Did you think I wouldn’t worry something might’ve happened to you? Because let me tell you, abandoning my work as Last Ranker just to find you caused more than than enough grief for me and the other Seven Knights.” 

“Well I did turn it up so I could cuddle with you.” she said softly before grabbing a strand of her hair. Rubbing her fingers that held the strand together she slightly glanced at him. While yeah it was hot outside there is nothing better than cuddling. 

Oh boy, this experiment was certainly turning into a huge mess by the seconds. Zig expected the incentive to be someone more... personal. Like, possibly getting to see a loved one or unlimited money so you could buy something ridiculous to keep yourself protected the whole experiment. But no: the incentive was not getting over half of them murdered. 

The best part? If that did happen, either himself or Atsuro would die for sure; through fiddling with the bracelet, he caught on he could switch to Atsuro’s number/color. That’s most likely what Zero meant by “pairs”.

And the crazy didn’t stop there-- a loud metallic screech sounded outside. It somehow spooked the Sentinels, as they were shoving everyone outside and then zipped by them in quite the hurry. Was this ‘disturbance’ a good sign, Zig opted to decide later.

--Mostly due to Atsuro getting the most disturbed look on his face. Even worse than when they first met up.

Somewhat uncharacteristic of him, Zig actually knocked on Atsuro’s door and waited for an answer before he walked inside. He kept his head down as he walked to the couch-- both to hide the bruise on his face and... some other reason. It was hard to put to words why.

Once he said down though, he immediately started talking, “Atsuro, there’s something I’ve neglected to tell you for far too long now.” 

"I knew about your feelings for me. I didn’t get them at first, but I noticed how you’d act towards Kazuya started happening to me. And when I realized that, I panicked.” 

“I remember thinking, ‘You’re going to get that boy killed if you let things get that far’. And even though I knew talking about this with you was the right thing to do, I was scared I’d say something careless and hurt you, so my solution was to convince myself I was assuming things and steer your feelings towards anyone that wasn’t me. It’s taken me until now to realize that by avoiding the problem how I did, it wouldn’t be a surprise if I hurt you in the process.”

Zig felt relieved more than anything to not see any familiar faces. Kuma made it obvious people were going to die (although the means shown to them weren’t real; the death itself was though), so the less people he knew here, the more he could take satisfaction nobody he cared about would die. There was always the threat of his own life as well, but that was a bridge he’d been willing to cross. 

--And then he saw someone he knew leave the theater.